The third and final book in the Course of Empire series finds our heroes battered and bruised. Eric Hill lies wounded in the hospital after barely surviving the massacre of the San tribe that he befriended in Africa. Eric’s boss, Admiral Curtiss, is in a military stockade, arrested for war crimes. Curtiss’s replacement, General Walden, has taken control of the Naval Research Lab and now wields the most powerful military technology in the world, which he intends to use for nefarious purposes.

But that’s not all the bad news: The eco-terrorist Riona Finley has kidnapped two of the lab’s top scientists–Bill Eastman and Jack Behrmann–and is forcing them to use the new technology to advance her agenda. But what is her true goal? Is she merely out to stop climate change or is she creating a weapon of mass destruction? The FBI firmly believes it’s the latter, and a massive manhunt is underway to find her. Unfortunately, FBI agent Bud Brown has given up on the case.